videos for your media project free media are to talk. for years down four more to go and seven american citizens charged with espionage one of his whistleblower after another has been locked up for spilling national secrets ahead of the case of james hits old burger in his latest plea for him. and speaking of whistleblowers bradley manning remains locked up for allegedly causing the biggest data drop in the u.s. history leaks that gave media outlets like the new york times a treasure trove of stories and the great lady isn't really covering manning's trial coming up an apology in the new york times public editor. and do as i say not as i do the u.s. reserves the right to spy on its citizens but that doesn't mean the un can do to say members of congress block a year when the time to world wide is dropping what it means for your privacy in

just a bit. it's thursday december sixth five pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our t.v. . well starting off this hour another name has been added to the list of people charged under the espionage act a former contractor linguist is being charged with stealing classified information from a navy base in bahrain james hits old burger has been in custody since october he is now asking a federal court to release him while he awaits his trial the government claims his old bar was a fugitive in europe for four months after he was dismissed from his post but offenses denying that saying the former linguist cooperated with law enforcement hits wilberger is the seventh person to be charged under the espionage act under the obama administration here's the others. well thomas drake he was a c. your n.s.a. executive shemale libel wittes was an f.b.i.

translator charged with leaking classified information to a blogger stephen jin will camera previously a u.s. state department contractor accused of leaking classified information to fox news bradley manning of course accused of the biggest classified document leak in u.s. history jeffrey sterling he was a cia agent john kerry aku was a director of counterterrorism operations in pakistan and the newest name to be added to the list james a hits all burger what they all share in common is that they have charged with violating the espionage act so what is behind this latest case for more i was joined by politico white house reporter josh gerstein. this fellow james had who was a contract linguist at a navy base in bahrain apparently got into some trouble there some colleagues noticed that he put a couple classified documents into

a book that he had taken into his private quarters there was an investigation and he basically got kicked out they sort of ended his work there and told him that he was no longer needed to go back to the u.s. and it looks like he's probably going to get fired on the way back to the u.s. he stopped in germany and he decided not to go all the way back and ultimately it out for three or four months in europe he says he was just traveling around the government that he was a fugitive from justice all right so he allegedly sent these documents to the hoover institute at stanford university most of the information found pertains revolution in iran back in one thousand nine hundred eighty nine there's also documents and photos. related to the iraq war the u.s. judge in this case has said that he doesn't he did not disarm and i'd classify disseminate excuse me classified information so is this really leaking and a violation of the espionage act can it really be considered as such. well it's

it's a strange case because it doesn't look like it was asked to and it doesn't appear that he was trying to relay this to any foreign government it is perhaps close to a leaking case because he was putting some of these documents at an archive at stanford where any member of the public to get them you could view that as similar to kind of the wiki leaks situation where the documents were basically being put in an online library this is more of physical library it does seem like an odd case to charge someone with a crime over there are classified information violations every day you know with more than a million people having these clearances it seems a little odd that these kinds of documents a handful of them would lead to two felony charges so we're not talking about documents that could possibly put u.s. national security at risk well i mean technically they should be classified if they don't have some impact on national security but the highest classification level here was secret they seem to be sort of situation reports that might be of use to

someone that day or the next day they're probably not of a great use after some time goes by they're just not the kind of highly sensitive documents that would normally trigger a criminal prosecution be it for leaking or for espionage or what have you. he is being charged with violating the espionage act now the seventh person under the obama administration what kind of sentence a look at for this. well according to law books he could get up to twenty years normally you get much shorter sentence depending on a lot of other factors like whether you have any prior criminal history i would be really surprised if a case like this when to trial you know we have had similar cases people including the director of the cia has been charged in the past with mishandling classified information in a national security adviser so the cases are brought sometimes but here we're not talking about a leader of the intelligence community we're talking about a contract linguist which makes this case a little unusual i'd be surprised if you got significant jail. well i know in

addition to this case that you've been following another case closely where the suspect is a choose the violating the espionage act and of course in the case of bradley manning you've written about how difficult it has been to report on it can you talk about some of these hurdles that you face trying to cover the case. well the main problem for reporters with covering the bradley manning case is that they documents those basic legal documents the pleadings that side to side the prosecution and defense filings with the court are not public there's no file room you can go to to look at them even the judge's orders are not public unless you choose to read them from the bench and then you better be able to write pretty fast because there's no public transcript of the proceedings lisi people scrambling to write things down it's just a very strange way of proceeding for those of us used to covering civilian courts where unless there's some specific reason you can get pretty much any document it's filed with or so would you say i mean in your experience reporting and covering

these cases the way that. it's a unique case trying to cover the bradley manning case. you know because this is actually the standard way that military courts martial are held there usually is no access to documents and that may be something that needs to change especially in this modern era kind of dates back to the day when court martials were done on the battlefield with the card table and us a lieutenant or somebody carrying out the court martial there are now done by the military judges you know a courtroom with high tech you have video cameras and all kinds of thing so it seems like the procedure of getting access to the documents needs to catch up with the times a little bit. mantra saying as we had mentioned this gentleman is the seventh of seven suspect to be charged under the ask me on espionage act and this is just within the obama administration josh can we is this a trend that we're seeing. it certainly looks that way i mean as you say that seven

cases here in the obama administration depending on how you count them two three or four during all presidential administrations before at least in terms of the espionage act cases related to leak and so it does seem to be a trend to really either have a zero tolerance and force one policy or at least some kind of much stricter more rigorously enforced in the air in the question's going to be is it fair to charge some people with felonies for the kinds of violations that other people in the past have gotten a slap in the wrist for or maybe just lost their clearance or their job yet you know whether or not it's a trend we are seeing that the seventh person now and this is kind of raising suspicion that. whistleblowers are accused whistleblowers are are being singled out are there is a there's a crackdown on those that try to blow the whistle. yeah i mean in several of these people would be characterized as whistleblowers i'm not sure this latest case the seventh case is the best example of that because he was sending these documents

back to stanford where they were apparently sitting on a dusty shelf somewhere if he really wanted to bring them to public attention immediately he probably could have found another route but you know it is something that i think academics are going to be concerned about and another interesting aspect of this case is stanford apparently still has these documents they're retaining them and he's actually charged with retaining classified information which raises the question of whether stanford has some special privilege to hold on to classified information that the government wants back that mr hatfill berger doesn't have an interesting case raises a lot of questions and thank you for staying on top of it and telling us what you know that was a politico white house reporter josh marsian. well here at r.t. we have been following the case of bradley manning very closely it's been called one of the most significant cases in u.s. military history but it's got him little to no coverage on the mainstream news at a rare news conference earlier this week in manning's in which manning's attorney david coombs made his first public appearance speakers brought this brought this to

attention i also want to say the journalists who've been covering the bradley manning and i know. one name you won't hear on that this is the new york times. what you see is journalists covering a trial that is very difficult to cover and you don't see that major media coverage . let's wiki leaks u.s. attorney michael ratner calling out the new york times for neglecting to cover the man in case the times you can recall was one of the first newspapers to partner up with wiki leaks during the initial release of cable gate as it's been done using information in the document leak as the basis for many of its reports no doubt benefiting from the massive amounts of information but it's no secret that those following the case closely have been unhappy with the paper's silence activists have made their feelings known from day one here's an example of the wiki leaks

truck recently decided to make a stop in front of the gray lady's office and it caused commemorated the visit by posting a picture online saying tweeted quote troll your ass harder than ever until you send a journalist to cover bradley manning's trial. also within the media community seem to agree with that sentiment the small group of reporters that did follow the case closely have commented on the lack of coverage as well here's a newer public on the absence of the times at fort meade quote. i truly do not understand your silence it's bad enough that private manning has been badly mel treated for revealing truth to power it's unconscionable and sad if the times sits quietly by saying nothing even worse simply running a.p. wire copy to let the story burry itself now the publication is now apologizing for the lack of coverage somewhat the paper is public editor margaret sullivan wrote a response saying quote in failing to send its own reporter to cover the

fascinating and important pretrial testimony of bradley manning the new york times missed the boat over the past several days as compelling testimony over the harsh treatment of this twenty four year old army private turned whistleblower or illegal informant to betting on your point of view flooded the media zone the times was notably absent. probably interesting to see if these words are will be followed by any action and if we do in fact see any reporters from the times make the trip to fort meade. or we are going to take a quick break but coming up just because big brother spies on american citizens doesn't mean the u.n. can u.s. representatives say the internet needs to remain free from government control sunday a critical to you that story still had. the

worst you were going through. the white house to give a. radio guy and for a minute. i want. to have you never seen anything like this. and that it was story we're always on top of and that is the revolving door between legislators and lobbyists probably because the hits just keep on coming we've been collecting files on the people who make a living hopping back and forth between the public and private sector these people

are in connections and power in the public sector which they can leverage into higher salaries in the private sector of course it's a win win for these individuals to go back and forth but who loses out all regular people whose interests are put on the back burner in favor of big businesses so who is the latest deserving of the mention a woman by the name of elizabeth fowler now liz has been going back and forth between the public and private sectors her entire career specializing in the health industry well she at the big time as the top health care aide to senator max baucus of montana now the chair of the senate finance committee then she went on to wellpoint the largest health insurance provider in the country but she made it back to the public sector just in time to draft the affordable care act while obamacare and health care reform in general was lauded as a progressive step it was also a boon for insurance companies because by law everyone needs to buy insurance through private health care providers like wellpoint listen to this bill moyers

report from two thousand and nine when he explains why health care reform might be tainted by private interests. health insurance industry. has six lobbyists for every member of congress and more than. your former congressional staff members after fellow wrote the law president obama called upon her to oversee its implementation and as you can see her job as the special assistant to the president was a paid drop from her job at the senate so perhaps it was time for a salary increase which she most assuredly is getting at her new gig at johnson and johnson fowler already received six hundred thirty dollars to speak to johnson and johnson executives back in two thousand that's according to legend storm so add a foul or to that list of members that revolve through that door and if you want to thank her for the health care bill make sure to address that letter to johnson and

johnson's office here in d.c. . well internet surveillance will have no borders if the united nations gets its way members of the united nations international telecommunications union have agreed to work toward putting in place standards for the internet that would allow ease dropping worldwide the u.n. says allowing spying on a global scale could allow authorities to detect when copyrighted material is transferred all this now raising concerns in the u.s. house of representatives members say they don't feel right about having the u.n. or giving the u.n. the power to eavesdrop but this is the same congress that has made cybersecurity a top priority attempting to pass legislation like sopa pipa and most recently fice which allows the government gives the government the ability to wiretap americans overseas let's talk about the u.s. proposal and more i was joined by our correspondent on the stasi of her. well lives are definitely sounds like

a very scary and quite convoluted story as so are the body we're talking about here is the international telecommunications union the i.t. you this is a specialized agency. within the united nations that has been around for decades it comprises all of the members of the u.n. one hundred ninety three members and is based in geneva and it specializes in focuses on communications technology and what's been going on as they've been kind of winning this option and debating the possibility of implementing a pretty tough standard for the internet that's causing a lot of hype and debate and controversy and even though this says their goal is to try to track down copyrighted material and data that's being passed around the internet and transferred around by users and is not in any way shape or form going to affect free speech the substance of what they're considering and they have been considering certainly speaks about something completely different what they're talking about implementing is deep packet inspection something that could allow governments to really dig much deeper into the data flying around on the web and

you know just to kind of explain it in simple terms of traditionally the kind of material that is being transferred online what we can trace is a name and an ip address very generic info if this deep packet inspection is applied the people applying it and the government supplying it will be able to see the substance of the material in the packets being passed around and certainly because we're talking about content here specific private content that might be shared by users this is certainly causing a lot of debate online some of that debate the debate critics say that this can lead to internet censorship how so. well you know critics are pretty outraged by this whole idea they're saying that this is full on big brother if this deep packet inspection is applied we're not talking about a national levels here and there we're talking about a global scale if all of these countries word of course sign up for something like this and you know basically people are comparing this to a chat with

a friend on line you know if they can see who you're talking to they can't necessarily see exactly what you're saying with this new standard they would be able to track down exactly what is being said to you know to compare this to maybe hiring a detective one would be able to see where a person goes and who they meet with but with this new standard this is basically allowing a detective to wiretap your phone your text messages and basically get all of the possible information in terms of what you're doing so major concerns about exactly what this kind of thing can lead to but it's important that we have to say that some people are saying look this is not yet been really implemented this is something that's being considered we have some member states that are part of the i.c.u. who are against this idea we have big businesses saying they wouldn't support this and it's a bore to keep in mind that this is one body that doesn't have any mandatory powers it can basically not force any kind of document they signed on to the other

countries so if this were to become a an international kind of document that they adopt that for those countries that have had major control over internet this would open a lot more doors but for those who still believe in freedom online certainly they don't have to sign up to this and that leaves a little more room for people who are worried that this is a global takeover of the internet well i guess congress here is worried about that they're opposing it and they passed a resolution urging the u.s. not to give the u.n. the power to control the internet can you tell us more about this well a certainly less we've had in september we've seen the senate pass of. resolution begging really for the u.s. government to not let this you one body control the internet and try to bring in to force any sort of documents like this and yesterday we saw the u.s. house of representatives vote unanimously for a resolution asking the u.s. government to not let the u.n. have control over the internet three hundred ninety seven votes against zero but

you know some people are saying that while congress is saying oh we just want to make sure the internet is free there excuses you know the internet has to be free from government control critics are saying let's look at the bigger picture it's quite likely that congress is more interested in not letting any sort of international body get involved in something that it could have power by itself at home and the i.c.u. has been saying to the u.s. relax this is really something that we're just a new one body we can't really have power over what goes in the in the united states but congress has definitely been taking these precautionary measures and making sure that the u.s. president really hears that this is something that they don't want by any means and all the while honest. congress has made it here in the u.s. has made cyber security a top priority attempting to pass through legislation to regulate the internet. so was this kind of a do as i say not as i do. well as that's certainly the the opinion that we get

when people hear that congress does all of a sudden you know blocking this u.n. idea certainly there can be concerns with exactly what the i.c.u. is considering it certainly is. a valid reasoning and valid questions that people are asking about these deep pocket inspections but when it comes to congress when only last year we've seen the whole ordeal with sopa and pipa and you know just really trying to track material online and being see a match with this big public outrage the question is is this another example of a double standard what congress wants to consider something within the u.s. it goes ahead and tries to do whatever it wants and you know monitor everybody and their mother but when it comes to you when a united nations body and we have to remember this particular idea was passed around and initiated by china so all my god china again trying to get involved certainly something that people are saying basically congress by voting against this. precaution is just you know trying to score some political points trying to kind of keep the power on its territory you know but of course when we see attempts

in the u.s. to block anonymous comments online and of course you know wiretapping and monitoring things online warrantless li it's a whole different story nobody's screaming and voting unanimously against that looks like a regulating the internet within u.s. borders is kind of what the a.d.l. is but the u.n. stepping in is taking it too far. so it certainly is certainly something that looks like the way the congress is reacting to this if it's a matter of internet freedom that it can control that it's a whole different story when it comes to the one body the u.s. is saying no thanks we'll deal with our things by ourselves and are staying on a saw thank you that was our to correspondent charkha. welding surveillance is getting out of hand brace yourself for this verizon has filed a patent for a cable box equipped with a microphone and sensors to record what you're doing that's right the television would be watching you watching it the idea would be that could target

advertisements to what you're doing while you're watching t.v. if you're watching with a pet it can show you commercials for pet products if you're fighting with your spouse it can lead you to the ideal marriage counselor and that's not all this technology would be able to communicate with your phone to see what you've been browsing on your mobile device that is obviously doesn't sit well with privacy advocates here response a statement arisan tells n.b.c. for the company has a well established track record of respecting its customers privacy and protecting their personal information while we do not comment on pending patent applications such futuristic patent violins by innovators are routine. so at this point it's just an idea but is it is this a sign that tracking consumers and the ability to spy is getting out of hand seems like a scary sign of what's to come. when i want to

a bizarre case you would think that if anyone could avoid police capture through digital information it would be as website curity guru but the tale of john mcafee who built the anti computer virus company that shares his name shows just how much information can be gleaned from something as simple as an i phone photo but publicity loving mcafee has been on the run on the lam for a month he's been hiding from bullies police who's named him a person of interest in the murder of his neighbor while dodging police mcafee has been welcoming media attention he blogs frequently and he invites journalists to join him on his adventures take this advice to magazine post from yesterday boasting that they're with him though in the end they might be the suckers here shortly after this picture was boast posted internet hackers notice something interesting the photo taken with an i phone still had all of the mehta data attached including g.p.s. coordinates and those coordinates put mcafee right here in guatemala when he fled

billy's altogether well despite misdirection from nasa fi who claimed he purposely posted incorrect mehta data the damage was done mcafee was arrested by guatemalan police last night for entering the country illegally and sent to jail where he continued to blog and today guatemala denied mcafee's request for asylum well shortly thereafter mcafee was hospitalized for convulsions he remains in guatemala in a guatemalan hospital for now and it's hard to make any grand generalizations about this case strange case yet one thing is for sure it is easier than ever to learn detailed information about people and their whereabouts so. you may want to think twice before posting a pic if you're on the run. and we're going to leave it there but breaking the set is coming up in thirty minutes here on r t let's check in with the host abby martin to see what's on today's agenda abbi what's going on but it is so and i have it so

the fiscal cliff the fiscal cliff the fiscal cliff it's just a little i'm hearing it out on the street is that we're going to talk to colonel doug of the grader who's been just published this new op ed in time magazine about you know what what what is cutting through all the rhetoric how can we cut defense while still maintaining our national security so we'll talk about that we're also to talk about opinion yet though the protests in mexico there's already been one failed tell the massive rests detention and all the aggression coming from the mexican riot police and also why what is it all about and how this total of these of the national media play into those role there aside from the talk about drones drones drones are to his favorite subject in all the new killer toys for obama's wish list coming up this christmas and all the new updates on the man a man right out of you thanks for that update that's coming up all in a half hour but that is going to do it for the news but check out our you tube channel you tube dot com slash our team america our website our teeth dot com slash

us a follow me on twitter at liz wall breaking the set is up in a half hour. here is mitt romney trying to figure out the main thing that the americans call adult. i'm sorry i missed the here's an awful lot of interests you sir are a fool you know what kind of mind their terrorist cells in your neighborhood all want to give us a to feature isn't the only liberal and the christian public you. can see your beliefs about it. it's clear the superheated distracts us from what you and i should care about because they're profit driven industry that sells a sensational garbage he calls it breaking news. and we're going to break that. please.